In Pennsylvania’s Bradford County, U.S. EPA officials have confirmed that seven private water wells near a Chesapeake Energy Corporation’s natural gas drilling site have been found to be contaminated.
The drilling site has been fracturing below ground to obtain natural gas. Also known as “fracking”, a methodology that uses water and chemicals to fracture the earth into obtaining natural gas and oil. The EPA tested the wells after the drilling site experienced a blow out, which released thousands of gallons of salty, chemical laced water into fields and streams. The EPA refused to release the test results to the public, with the exception of indicating to local residents in Bradford County that the wells have been contaminated from the release. EPA refused to identify the exact contaminants that were found in the well. Companies that utilize fracking methods have fought to keep the type of chemicals they use out of the public domain, claiming that the types of chemicals used are proprietary technologies and cannot be released to the pubic. The EPA’s refusal to release the exact chemicals found in drinking water wells is inexcusable. It is a breach of the public’s trust in government to protect it. The EPA and the Chesapeake Energy Corporation are colluding to keep this information from the public.
It’s irrelevant that drillers consider chemicals used in fracking to be proprietary. The chemicals found in our contaminated wells are OURS, now, and we have every right to demand of EPA, “our protector,” that they publicly release this information – if for no other reason than to forewarn those of us whose wells have not yet been poisoned about the substances we need to begin testing for.
I’m not sure there’s collusion here between the EPA and CHK as much as the EPA is suffering from bureaucratic b.s. The EPA selected our place, home of Aruba Petroleum’s gas well site as part of the national hyrdraulic fracturing study on contaminated water. Our water is contaminated, and we have piles and piles of documentation of this rotten careless operator. While I do not expect the EPA to have timely results, and even necessarily share those results with us, at least in detail, I do expect that with the help of the EPA< we'll continue to shine a bright light on this growing national problem. At this point, it really makes no difference to me to learn exactly what is in our drinking water, as I already know that it is contaminated with drilling fluids. I may not know all of the fluids that are in the water, but I know that none of these chemicals that were found were not present before the drilling. This is not to say that I agree that the EPA should keep these findings secret, but I think they could explain their reasoning for such much better.
This is a proven fact that Slick Water hydro Fracking has contaminated water wells….a court case for sure……
why do u.s. citizens need the e.p.a. if they only verify something without protecting the citizenry? time to fold it.